Why The Last Ship Had To Shut Down Production

As one of cable TV's most consistently watched dramas, TNT's action-packed thrillerThe Last Ship will be tearing its way through TNT's primetime schedule for quite a while longer. But while the show is succeeding with fans, one of its stars is dealing with some more troublesome personal issues, and The Last Ship will temporarily put its production on halt while actor Eric Dane deals with depression.

The silver lining in this situation is that Eric Dane is taking his mental stress hiatus without any bad blood forming with the producers or the network. The actor's rep told Variety that Dane requested a few weeks to step away from filming so that he could focus on more personal issues, and that his request was granted warmly by TNT. And at this point, no one should look at this as a sign of Dane wanting out of the show. His rep said he indeed looks forward to getting back to work, so no worries about Tom Chandler falling behind on saving the world.

At this point, work involves rebuilding the United States during The Last Ship Season 4, and while doing any job is difficult while coping with depression, that kind of post-apocalyptic gig can't possibly make one's headspace any more mirthful. Eric Dane, Adam Baldwin, LaMonica Garrett and the rest of the cast and crew have been extremely busy, too, as the production schedule for Season 5, preemptively ordered just a month after the previous renewal, was slotted in place immediately following completion of Season 4.

The Last Ship reportedly did just return from a two-week hiatus, so this new delay indeed puts a damper on progress. But considering Season 4 isn't even scheduled to air until later this summer, with Season 5 dropping in the middle of next year, no one is feeling much pressure to bang out the rest of the episodes with expediency, so there's worlds' less chaos happening here than there would be at a network series.

With Season 3 have wrapped all the way back in September, fans of The Last Ship are definitely ready to see where Captain Tom Chandler and the other survivors (both good and evil) take the planet in Season 4, which will arrive in the next couple of months. Head to our summer TV premiere schedule to see when everything else will also hit the small screen in the near future.